学术英语(社科)Unit2二单元原文及翻译

admin管理员组

文章数量:1531793

2024年6月6日发(作者：)

UNIT 2 Economist

field of study has its own language and its own way of thinking.

Mathematicians talk about axioms, integrals, and vector spaces.

Psychologists talk about ego, id, and cognitive dissonance. Lawyers talk

about venue, torts, and promissory estoppel.

每个研究领域都有它自己的语言和思考方式。数学家谈论定理、

积分以及向量空间。心理学家谈论自我、本能、以及认知的不一致性。

律师谈论犯罪地点、侵权行为以及约定的禁止翻供。

ics is no different. Supply, demand, elasticity, comparative

advantage, consumer surplus, deadweight loss—these terms are part of the

economist’s language. In the coming chapters, you will encounter many new

terms and some familiar words that economists use in specialized ways. At

first, this new language may seem needlessly arcane. But, as you will see, its

value lies in its ability to provide you a new and useful way of thinking about

the world in which you live.

经济学家也一样。供给、需求、弹性、比较优势、消费剩余、最低

损耗，这些术语是经济学语言的一部分。在接下来的章节里，你会遇到

很多新术语以及一些熟悉的词汇，这些术语和词汇被经济学家们用在经

济这一领域。起初，这些新的语言可能看起来不必要的神秘，但是，你

会看到，他的价值在于他能提供给你一种新的和有用的思考方式，让你

思考你生活的世界。

ists try to address their subject with a scientist’s objectivity.

They approach the study of the economy in much the same way as a physicist

approaches the study of matter and a biologist approaches the study of life:

They devise theories, collect data, and then analyze these data in an attempt

to verify or refute their theories.

经济学家们试图从科学的角度来阐释他们的学科。他们演绎经济学

和物理学家演绎物质、生物学家演绎生命一样：他们设计理论，收集数

据，然后分析这些数据，试图能够证明或者反驳他们的理论。

beginners, it can seem odd to claim that economics is a science.

After all, economists do not work with test tubes or telescopes. The essence

of science, however, is the scientific method—the dispassionate development

and testing of theories about how the world works. This method of inquiry is

as applicable to studying a nation’s economy as it is to studying the earth’s

gravity or a species’ evolution. As Albert Einstein once put it, “The whole of

science is nothing more than the refinement of everyday thinking.”

对于初学者来说，宣称经济学是科学似乎看起来很奇怪。毕竟，经

济学家们并不和试管或者显微镜一起工作。然而，科学的精华是科学的

方法——世界如何运作这一理论的逐渐发展和试验。这种观察的方法运

用于研究一个国家的经济，就像它运用于研究地球的重力或者一个物种

的演变。就像爱因斯坦曾经提出的：科学的全部无非就是日常思考的精

炼。

gh Einstein’s comment is as true for social sciences such as

economics as it is for natural sciences such as physics, most people are not

accustomed to looking at society through the eyes of a scientist. Let’s

therefore discuss some of the ways in which economists apply the logic of

science to examine how an economy works.

尽管爱因斯坦的观点对于社会科学例如经济学是正确的，就像它对

于自然科学例如物理学一样是正确的，大部分人并不习惯于通过科学的

角度来看待社会。因此，就让我们来讨论一些方法，通过这些方法，经

济学家们运用科学逻辑来观察经济如何运作。

Newton, the famous seventeenth-century scientist and

mathematician, allegedly became intrigued one day when he saw an apple fall

from an apple tree. This observation motivated Newton to develop a theory of

gravity that applies not only to an apple falling to the earth but to any two

objects in the universe. Subsequent testing of Newton’s theory has shown

that it works well in many circumstances (although, as Einstein would later

emphasize, not in all circumstances). Because Newton’s theory has been so

successful at explaining observation, it is still taught today in undergraduate

physics courses around the world.

牛顿，17世纪著名的科学家和数学家，当有一天看到一个苹果从树

上掉下时，引起了他的深思。这个观察使牛顿形成了重力的理论，这一

理论不仅应用于苹果落地，而且应用于宇宙中的任何两个物体之间。牛

顿定律的不断试验表明，它适用于很多情况（尽管爱因斯坦后来强调并

不是适用于所有的情况）。由于牛顿定律在解释试验时很成功，所以今

天它仍然在世界各个大学的物理课程中被学习。

interplay between theory and observation also occurs in the field

of economics. An economist might live in a country experiencing rapid

increases in prices and be moved by this observation to develop a theory of

inflation. The theory might assert that high inflation arises when the

government prints too much money. (As you may recall, this was one of the

本文标签： 科学谈论经济学